Labour Party delegates have rejected a proposal that the
party drop its plan to raise the age of eligibility for New Zealand
Superannuation at its annual conference in Christchurch.
At the last election, Labour campaigned on a transition to raising the age to 67 over time.

David Cunliffe.

Photo: RNZ

Electorate
committees Northland and Coromandel both put up amendments at the
party's annual conference in Christchurch on Friday to axe any move to
raise the age of eligibility. But after a feisty debate, that was
rejected by a substantial vote.
Instead, it was agreed that Labour would consider all options to make
New Zealand Superannuation sustainable, including raising the age of
eligibility.
Labour's finance spokesperson David Parker says he is happy with the amended policy.
"We've got to a really good outcome. We're given freedom to make the
decisions that are necessary to ensure the sustainability of
superannuation. That's what we wanted, so we've reached an agreement
through our policy process that's consistent with that."
Labour leader David Cunliffe says the change is not a watering down of the policy.
"I think there is some confusion. Our policy platform is a high level
in general document and it leaves room for us to fix an age. It
indicates the age will rise, but it's not at a level of detail of saying
how much, by when."
The policy will be debated by the whole conference on Saturday morning, but David Parker is confident it will be supported.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

In the run up to the general
election Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy is
urging politicians to “do the right thing and stick to
those major issues that will help make New Zealand a better
place for all our children to grow up in.”
“Equating
Maori New Zealanders to French aristocrats who were murdered
because of their privilege is a grotesque and inflammatory
statement. Accusations of Maori privilege are not borne out
by Maori socio economic statistics.”
“Whether we like
it or not the reality is that ethnicity and disadvantage are
connected and found in damning statistics that on average
sees Maori New Zealanders life expectancy, education and
health outcomes lagging behind non Maori New Zealanders,”
said Dame Susan.
“The connection between ethnicity and
disadvantage did not appear overnight and breaking it
won’t happen overnight either. Treating everyone exactly
the same will not necessarily make everyone exactly the same
and anyone who thinks so is incredibly naïve.”

Maori are legally privileged in New Zealand today, just as the Aristocracy were legally privileged in pre-revolutionary France.
But, of course, in our ordinary use of the word, it is absurd to say
that Maori are privileged. The average life expectancy of Maori is
significantly lower than Pakeha and Asian. Average incomes are lower.
Average educational achievement is lower.
Legal privilege offends people less when the beneficiaries are not
materially privileged, when they are generally poorer than those at a
legal disadvantage... the principle of legal equality is far more important than any
redistributive or compensatory impulses that people may have. It is not
some philosophical nicety to be discarded because you feel guilty about
what people with the same skin pigment as you did 150 or 200 years ago.

I can't figure out whether Devoy is OK with affirmative action but doesn't think it's a major issue, or doesn't think equality before the law is a major issue? Either way, as race relations commissioner they should both be major issues for her.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

OIA requests to the Ministry of Social Development are now never met within the required maximum 20 working day time limit. A notification of an extension is received. And then sometimes a second extension. Complaining to the Ombudsman is a waste of time.

Or is it....

I decided to write to the State Services Commission and ask about average response times to OIA requests and how MSD compared to other departments . This resulted in the SSC referring my letter to other departments eg Education and Health. But SSC also advised me to write to the Ombudsman who, while not subject to the OIA, might provide information on complaints received about MSD.

That is what I did.

The Ombudsman duly obliged and told me that 110 complaints had been received against MSD in the 2013 financial year. 62 were about delays.

On its own that doesn't mean very much. But then I received a letter from MSD (the one that had been passed on to them from SSC) refusing my request for information about average response times. However they did tell me that in the 2013 financial year they had received 482 requests.

Context then shows that the complaint rate against MSD is quite high. 482 requests and 110 complaints.And this happens even when many people consider complaining to the Ombudsman a waste of time.

Anyway, there is good news.

The Ombudsman finished:

You may also be interested to know that the Chief Ombudsman is intending to conduct a wider administrative investigation into concerns that the broader public sector is not managing requests for information under the OIA as well as it should.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Yet last week in Parliament the following patsy and response went unchallenged.

Youth Programmes—Reports
5. MELISSA LEE (National) to the
Minister for Social Development: What
recent reports has she received about the Government’s
Youth Service initiative? Hon PAULA BENNETT
(Minister for Social Development): Youth Service,
which is about reaching out early to young people on or at
risk of going on a benefit and engaging them in education or
training, is already producing great results. The latest
evaluation report shows that four out of five young people
enrolled in Youth Service are now in education or training,
and 63 percent of 16 and 17-year-olds on the youth payment
achieved National Certificate of Educational Achievement
(NCEA) credits in their first year on the Youth Service,
compared with just 24 percent of young people who were on
the old independent youth benefit. Fourteen percent of those
on the youth payment achieved NCEA level 2, compared with 5
percent before the Youth Service. Achieving NCEA level 2, of
course, makes someone far more likely to be able to support
themselves and be financially independent.
Melissa Lee: What evidence has she seen
that the Youth Service is working to stop young people
becoming dependent on the benefit in the long term?
Hon PAULA BENNETT: It is early days but
I am pleased that we are already seeing a drop in the number
of young people on the youth payment who go on to a main
benefit when they turn 18. Seventy percent of young people
on the youth payment did not go on to a main benefit when
they turned 18 in the year to March 2014. These are young
people who have often come from very difficult backgrounds.
Wrapping support around them early and ensuring that they
are not on a lifetime of welfare is what our Youth Service
is all about.

Not a supplementary in sight.

Another example - Last week I provided data showing that the policy to discourage adding children to a benefit wasn't working.

It is the job of a good opposition to monitor government policies, especially if they oppose them. Yet Labour's Sue Moroney does little but push her paid parental leave bill.

Now, on balance, I think Paula Bennett has a better grasp on the welfare problem than previous Ministers and there have been good reforms with good results.

But there are vulnerabilities a credible government-in-waiting would be exposing.

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About Me

Lindsay Mitchell has been researching and commenting on welfare since 2001. Many of her articles have been published in mainstream media and she has appeared on radio,tv and before select committees discussing issues relating to welfare. Lindsay is also an artist who works under commission and exhibits at Wellington, New Zealand, galleries.